LeBron James Leads Heat Past Pacers
31 May, 2013
MIAMI (AP) — LeBron James said a few words at halftime to try and coax something more out of the Miami Heat. Turns out, whatever he said was unnecessary.
The look on his face was all the Heat needed.
With a brilliant third quarter, James immeasurably changed not just Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, but quite possibly whatever’s still left to decide in this series. James scored 16 of his 30 points in the decisive period, Udonis Haslem added 16 and the Heat pulled off a second-half rally to move one win away from the NBA Finals after beating the Indiana Pacers 90-79 on Thursday night.
“With LeBron, it’s not what he says all the time,” Haslem said. “It’s just the look he gives.”
Indiana was up 46-40 early in the third, surely sensing a chance to grab control of the series. Over the next 11 minutes, the Heat outscored the Pacers 30-10, with James either scoring or accounting for 25 Miami points. He shot 7 for 10 in the third quarter; the Pacers shot 3 for 14. He had four rebounds in the quarter; the Pacers, as a team, grabbed six. He had four assists in the quarter; the Pacers had one.
Paul George had 27 points and 11 rebounds for the Pacers, who got 22 points from Roy Hibbert and 17 from David West. The Pacers led by as many as seven at one point, but had no answer for the Heat in the third and now have to win back-to-back games – against a team that hasn’t lost consecutive games since early January.
AP
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